Dan Beimborn posted an interesting idea in a thread from last year about tuning a Cittern GDAEA, and then using a partial capo at the 5th fret on the top four courses to yield (G)GDAD.

I was wondering if a variation of that idea could be extended in the downward direction -- tuning a long-scale 5 course Cittern DDAEB, with partial capo at the 5th fret over the top 4 courses, to yield (D)GDAE.

Would that be the answer to getting a nice short scale (~19" capo'd on a 25" scale) on the top four strings for melody playing, along with a deep D drone on the bottom, without sacrificing tone on that bottom string with a shorter scale?

Of course, trying to squeeze all things into one "ideal" instrument seldom works, so I'm sure there's something wrong with this idea.


I did a forum search but didn't turn up anything on the tuning, please point me to any earlier discussions I might have missed. The main disadvantage I can think of, would be that the strings would have to be just a hair lighter in gauge than Mandocello strings at that tuning... pretty heavy. So the the finger feel wouldn't be as nimble for melody playing as a shorter scale instrument, and I'm not sure the tone of the strings would be bright enough. Also, there might be a big jump in tone between the sound of the open low D and notes being played under the capo. OTOH, that doesn't seem to bother players of harp guitars. Any other reasons this wouldn't work? Has anyone here tried it?